Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, will fly to the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo later today, his office announced on Monday.
Lacroix arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday evening for a 72-hour visit that will take him to the East after consultations with the heads of political institutions including President Félix Tshisekedi, the political class, CENCO-ECC and civil society.
“He met with the Prime Minister, the presidents of the two chambers of parliament, the political opposition, civil society, and religious denominations,” said a source close to the Congolese Presidency.
The Eastern region comprised of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces have endured three years of uninterrupted war between the AFC/M23 rebels and government troops supported by Burundian army and Rwandan militia FDLR made-up of perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against ethnic Tutsi which claimed over a million lives.
The battle hardened AFC/M23 rebels control the major cities in Eastern DRC stretching from strategic Bunagana border city to Goma in North Kivu and upto Bukavu City in South Kivu Province
The rebels had also seized Uvira city but unilaterally pulled out under condition that the international community takes up responsibility of the city .. literally requiring deployment of a neutral force. The UN Peacekeeping mission for stabilisation of Congo has already set boots on ground in Uvira.
